Logic Rising
by Mister Science
Summary: A more scientific look at the self-insert genre and the Naruto world as a whole. How will an outsider fare in a new world? Will his ideas and experiences let him prosper, or will he be the outstanding nail that gets hammered down?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome to Logic Rising, a (hopefully) more realistic take on a self-insert style of story, and my first written story. I've long pondered the logistics of such an occurrence even though this genre has always seemed like simple wish fulfillment, and finally decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at writing one as a thought experiment.  
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**In that vein of thought, what you can expect is a very "simulationist" story. While I will be incorporating reviewer feedback and ideas into the story, this will NOT be some kind of ridiculous story where the protagonist is tearing apart armies by the age of 6. While the protagonist will have an incredible advantage over people his own age (20-some years of knowledge and wisdom will do that), he will very much be human and limited by science.**

**Likewise, his knowledge of the world will be limited to what I had when I thought up the story (at least, as well as I can remember as I learn new things), and the various chakra arts will be limited by actual scientific principles, although not the actual math involved (that would not exactly be most people's cup of tea).**

**I'm setting the rating as T for now. I'm not currently intending any mature content, but I suspect that my style of writing may go beyond beginning readers.**

* * *

Being a baby, the "newborn" reflected, was a horrible experience.

His memory consisted of living the comfortable life of a newly minted engineer, fresh from the university, laying down in bed one night. Followed by the sudden experience of being very cold, very wet, and very, very naked. Admittedly, he was too shocked to experience the situation for long, and by the time the panic subsided, he had been dried and bundled up in warm fabric before quickly passing out.

It took, he estimated, several days for him to come to grips with the situation, but time was... difficult for a newborn. Consciousness was fleeting, and his waking moments were nearly exclusively filled with being fed or changed. He wished there was a clicking clock in the room so he could at least count the seconds he was awake. Sadly, some rough guesswork was his only way of telling time.

Many ideas had been tossed around in his head since his rebirth, but very little was able to be confirmed. He thought at first it was simply a bizarre dream, but time and hunger pains threw that idea out. Hallucinations and other kinds of simulated experiences were also ruled out, he believed. He was skeptical that anything could make such a realistic experience.

He grew tired and still as his hunger subsided and he was placed back in the crib he had woken up in. He gazed the tired sounding woman who had set him down, straining to try to make out her face. Adults, he thought, really misjudge how bad a baby's vision is.

Was it because he was a baby? He knew cats and dogs couldn't see right away, but they didn't rely as much on sight. Was it possible he had been reincarnated in a body destined for blindness?

Instantaneously, his world became darkness.

* * *

When he awoke next, it was darker and colder than it had been since his rebirth, but he could also hear muffled sounds. Scraping, pounding, and yelling all could be heard from what must have been outside, but they were overshadowed by the now familiar feelings of hunger and a full diaper.

Unable to do anything but cry for food, he did so. After a few minutes, he began to grow worried. Had something happened? Before, help had always been prompt. Why was nobody coming this time?

Suddenly nervous, he cried louder and louder, hoping that help would come soon. As his tiny lungs started to burn from exertion, he was surprised by the muffled noises suddenly rushing closer. Were they coming from above him?

Through the scraping noises, he started to recognize frantic voices. Nervousness gave way to confusion. Was he underground? Any thoughts that he was reliving his life from the beginning vanished; he would have heard this story if it had happened to him.

Light broke near him as the the voices suddenly were clear. Their words were unintelligible, but that wasn't new. The thought that this wasn't just a baby's brain learning to recognize speech, however, was. Such thoughts didn't last long as he was scooped up by a pair of warm arms and quickly rushed into the light.

Things passed in a blur after that, in what could have been seconds or hours, he was handed off to another, and felt the familiar scent of milk. As the stomach pains started to settle, he quickly succumbed to his exhaustion.

His last thoughts were on the shockingly familiar spiral he saw on transit.

* * *

Thankfully for his sanity, things started to improve after that. Time was easier to keep track of; he wasn't sure where he was being kept, but the new room had a window that let in natural light. He guessed that he was awake for somewhere around 3 hours per day based on how long he was awake and how often night fell. The light that streamed in during the day helped him stay awake longer, though he continued to feel perpetually exhausted.

Most of his waking thoughts were occupied by the newest sources of information he had picked up on. His eyes were sharpening and his hearing was clearing up, relieving the feeling of being stuck in a sensory deprivation tank. Neither was truly clear yet, but he was nearly able to make out the faces of the caretakers who would pick him up when he needed feeding or changing, and he could tell what they would say to try to soothe him.

Or at least, he could have if they had spoken English. As it was, the only term he could really identify was "Kiseki-kun," and he only recognized that because it was said frequently and he recognized the honorific as one of the insignificant bits of Japanese he knew. It seemed logical to assume that Kiseki was his new name, though he had no idea what it meant. He reluctantly decided to try to come to terms with his new name, since he was stuck here for the foreseeable future.

Combined with another detail his "enhanced" senses had picked up, he had been able to figure out where he was: Konoha. He had seen the recognizable leaf symbol on some of the clothing his caretakers had worn, though the shape had always seemed more like a bird's head to him.

He would have laughed off the honest idea that he would end up in this situation if he wasn't actually living it. People did NOT just end up sucked into fictional worlds in baby form. Or at least, he didn't THINK they did. People did sometimes just disappear in his old world, could it have happened to others? Were "fictional" stories just these different realities bleeding into each other?

Putting untestable theories aside, Kiseki was fairly certain he was here for a reason. He considered himself a man of science, and he had always enjoyed learning about fantasy settings. There simply was no reasonable explanation for an adult mind being copied or plucked from one reality and placed inside a newborn body in another.

Even if he had been placed in a fresh copy of his body, it would have taken the power of a god or something comparable to perform such a feat. But he knew he hadn't simply been regressed in age; he'd been born with a minor birth defect on his hand in his old life that wasn't present in the new one. At best, he was in some kind of clone, but he wouldn't be able to tell that for years, if ever. He simply did not have a clear idea of what he had looked like as a baby.

He was honestly unsettled at the thought of how he got here. Had he been abducted from his world, or was there another version of him still walking around living his life? Or, even more frightening, what if he was just some kind of super-meta fictional character? He'd previously thought that the philosophical question of reality was irrelevant because reality, at the very least, FELT real, but finding himself in a story had turned that idea on its head to some degree.

As much as Kiseki hoped he would be able to return to his old life, he was frightened of what the answer would actually be, if he ever got one. Even if it was possible to return, would his old life still be there? He was far from an expert on the subject, but time was...weird when looked at critically. IF he could get back to his old body (if it was even still there), would he find that time had progressed as it did here? As much as he tried to put these thoughts behind him to focus on the short-term, he found it difficult.

He would have nightmares for weeks.

* * *

**A/N: This first chapter feels kind of awkward and short, but it fits thematically with the character's state I guess. Babies are born with bodies that are still very much in development, and I wanted to make sure that shone through. This is kind of my best take on what a baby would ACTUALLY experience based on what I could dig up.  
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**The second section feels rather contrived, but I wanted Kiseki to be an orphan for ease of writing, and the (implied) Kyuubi attack seemed like a good opportunity to make that happen. If his survival feels too contrived, think of it as whatever cosmic entity (technically yours truly) pulling some strings to set up the board.**

**Regardless, give me your thoughts in the reviews. Likes, dislikes, thoughts for how to proceed; I'm in uncharted waters here. Oh, and expect a bit of a timeskip in the next chapter. I think I've exhausted (pun unintended) most of the material that could reasonably happen to a newborn. Once Kiseki can move around on his own and stay awake for more than 45 minutes at a time or so, he can try to figure out his situation more.**


	2. Chapter 2

The one upside to rebirth, Kiseki reflected, is that time passes quickly. Babies learn to crawl and speak simple words after a few months, and the day flies by when you spend three quarters of it asleep.

After what mentally felt like the longest week of his life, but was probably closer to a couple of months, he found the experience significantly less miserable, at least at the surface level. He could see more than a foot, clearly hear spoken words, and he could even crawl around a bit.

Sure, he was just starting to be able to see colors, he would sometimes wake up to outside noises, and he fell over a lot, but hey! Progress!

Even better for his state of mind was the fact that he could stay awake for almost twice as long! Factoring in the fugue state people typically experience when falling asleep or waking up, his time for planning had skyrocketed.

He had quickly started working on the one change he felt was in his power to make happen: switching to baby food.

He had had QUITE enough of breastfeeding, thank you very much! Bottlefeeding had been better, but it still wasn't particularly enjoyable.

Well, baby food wasn't exactly a gourmet feast either, but milk got old, fast. At least now he had some variety, and he had always liked applesauce.

While he would still accept the bottle at times (he was nervous about a baby's nutrition, even if he had never particularly cared as an adult), it felt good to be able to actually make some kind of change in his life, even if his gums were starting to get the sensitive feeling he suspected was the start of teething.

That line of thinking is also what led him to trying to find his chakra.

Progress was slow on that project. He hadn't read much of Naruto, but he had picked up quite a bit of random lore, and he had heard of the child soldiers of ROOT. Even of he assumed he was off their radar, he didn't think good things would happen if a toddler was found controlling chakra before it could even speak.

Suffice to say, he saved his experimentation for the times he was alone, delaying crying for attention to maximize his time. Still, he knew chakra was supposed to pool in the gut, so how hard could it be to tap into it? After all, children do it, and he had the mind of an adult!

Turns out, it took days before he could even feel it, and then more days to try to start controlling it. Apparently, babies had practically no chakra.

It was disappointing, but it made sense. Kiseki remembered that chakra was supposed to be comprised of mental and physical energy. While he had no idea how to measure mental energy aside from, "How do I feel," he had spent years measuring physical energy, and he knew it had to be conserved. Energy in equals energy out, and the fact of the matter is that, as a baby, very little energy was coming in, and most of that energy was being used to grow.

Still, it didn't exactly HURT to try controlling his chakra, so he kept at it. His first attempts led to him falling asleep almost immediately, but it got easier.

He suspected that was a combination of learning control and his reserves growing as his body developed, but he figured it was mainly the control.

This led to him squirming around his crib in the baby equivalent of pacing sessions. Chakra control was always painted as essential, but he didn't really know too much about it. He knew of the exercises to train it, but he didn't know what the actual results were.

Would it help him breath fire or create gusts of wind? Or was that entirely different? Would it allow him to combine chakra elements to get the special elements like wood and ice? He knew that was a common staple of fanfictions, but what did it really mean to combine chakra natures?

For that matter, were chakra natures actually a thing? From a physical perspective, did it really make sense that chakra could do all this fantastical stuff, but be aligned in such a bizarre way? He could kind of buy fire and lightning, because they were at least different "forms" of energy, but earth, water, and air were all simply kinetic energy. But fire and ice should logically go hand in hand. Heck, lightning and magnetism should be the SAME THING!

He WAS sure that the laws of physics were the same here. He was no quantum physicist, but he knew that if things deviated by more than the tiniest bit there would be no matter, let alone human life.

The question intrigued him, but he was years away from being able to experiment or ask questions. Kiseki groaned and flopped down, putting the question from his mind for now.

This complete lack of fitting mental simulation was already old. The caretakers of the orphanage (at least, he assumed that's where he was) had started speaking more to him, so he guessed they were trying to get him to speak? It gave him something to look forward too, even though it was just a couple words.

He hoped it wouldn't attract too much attention if he started mimicking their words. Surely lots of babies picked up words quickly. Right?

Thoughts of being able to actually experience the world again flitted through his mind as Kiseki curled up and exhaustion took him.

* * *

Harasaki Asami was not a woman who was used to mysteries. She liked reading well enough, and felt comfortable gossiping with her friends, but true mysteries?

She felt that was best left to the professionals. Still, when the Kyuubi devastated her village and left ashes and death in its wake, she did her part in picking up the pieces. She'd spent years teaching little darlings their words and numbers, so she felt it only natural to volunteer with the orphans left by the attack. Most of the damage done in the attack had been property related, but she knew nothing of construction and felt too much sympathy for the little ones.

What she found when she when she volunteered almost felt like the Kyuubi attacked again.

The death toll had been high, but the village would survive. Even the worst estimates placed the death toll around 5%. She knew there would be a lot of orphans. It wasn't as bad as she imagined (most families had been entirely lost, rather than just the parents), but she was shook to her core that so many of them were older. The fear that had accompanied the demon would never be forgotten, she felt, but too many young lives had been lost to that fear. Children had fled from their parents before they could be brought to safety, choked on the smoke and ash, or even been abandoned in their cribs by those who had lost all control in panic.

Worse, she had heard rumors that many of the youngest had died from the monster's presence alone, their tiny hearts stopping in terror.

The one blessing was that the majority of the survivors were intact. For a disaster as large as this, survival was a coin flip. You either survived with minor injuries that were easily treated, or you died. Many of the children had nightmares for months, but even those began to fade with time.

No, she felt that the children under her care would grow up as happy and healthy as all the orphans that came before them, especially with how much support was being passed around in the name of the Will of Fire.

The children had received many visits from the authorities to make sure they were as happy and healthy as they could be. Medics stopped by frequently in the aftermath to watch injuries. The clans and many civilian families came by looking for the children who were unaccounted for.

One of the first priorities after ensuring the safety of the village was even to send a sensor nin to the orphanages a few times to try to reunite families. She wasn't sure on the details, but apparently families had similar chakra. Combined with blood tests, it was possible to pin down relations.

All these efforts led to the emergency orphanages being phased out as many of the children were placed with families. Sadly, due to the possibility of clan children being missed, regular adoptions were strictly curtailed in the name of village security.

Asami didn't care much for that. There may not have been a huge rush to adopt right now anyway due to the rebuilding efforts, but she felt that the children deserved the best chance at happiness they could get, to hell with village security! She felt horrible that, even after regular adoptions were cleared again, most of the children wouldn't be taken in. The economic damage combined with the surge in orphans left most families willing and able to take in a child having already done so.

But as the children dwindled down to a more manageable number, and the volunteering slowed, the remaining staff started to notice something odd in one of the surviving infants.

Little Kiseki-kun, to be precise. The miracle child found in a collapsed building in the wake of the event, and named after the impossibility of his survival.

Little things that would nearly be overlooked showed in his behavior and the comments of the other staff. "Such a quiet baby," they would coo about him. The nurse maids nearly sighed in relief when he started turning his nose up at milk in favor of formula and baby food, not that she could blame them.

When he learned to crawl early, they figured that he was just older than they thought or a quick learner. Likewise for his first stumbling words.

It wasn't until a follow up visit that the sensor nin, Mitsuhari-san, stopped by Kiseki-kun's crib while he slept.

"Almost like a Nara, but it feels wrong. And he looks nothing like a Yamanaka."

They had arranged for a blood test after that, but the results had come back negative. Kiseki wasn't a member of either clan. He was one of the only children they had zero information on, as if he just showed up out of thin air. He wasn't old enough to know his name, had no identifying features or clothing, and none of the families coming by recognized him.

Even the destroyed clinic he had been found in had lost all of its files in the fires that claimed much of the village.

But the short statement by the sensor nin had left an impact on Asami. The big clans were well known even among the civilians, and the Nara and Yamanaka were renowned for their intellect. She wondered if perhaps she could expect an interesting future for the boy with such bright, curious eyes.

* * *

As the weeks flew by, Kiseki finally felt like he was making some progress in improving his situation. Once he got the muscle coordination to crawl, the adults that were in charge started standing him upright while playing with him. It didn't take long before he took his first stumbling steps and started charging around the building. The less said about his balance, the better; he probably would be pretty banged up if the rooms he was kept in didn't have soft carpet.

Still, the adults seemed to find it cute to watch him run around with the little plush dog, Inu-kun, they'd given him. He felt kind of awkward carrying it around and accepting so many hugs and cuddles, but he thought it was acceptable that he take solace in the comforts he had.

Still, given that he was kept in a small nursery, there wasn't too much to occupy his attention, except for a low hanging window he could look out. That allowed him to confirm that he was in an orphanage. He would see the younger kids running around the yard and playing during the day.

He was unsure how to feel about the orphanage. He was of course glad that he hadn't just been left to die, but he was nervous at the prospect of being adopted. Would that be better or worse for him? He added the question to his "Stuff I can't change or should worry about later" pile, which had grown quite significantly.

The biggest question was what he was going to do about this world. Would he be able to save lives with his limited foreknowledge, or just get himself killed? Did the risks even warrant trying?

If he was being very generous, he could MAYBE get the information to those in charge in the near future. It wouldn't be long in the grand scheme before he was let outside and he could find a shinobi. He had only just started learning the local language by pointing at things and mimicking the words the adults said, but he could probably throw up enough red flags just with names like Madara, Orochimaru, and Akatsuki to warrant a check by a Yamanaka.

That would at least get what little he knew about the future to the authorities, but it could very likely result in the bad guys adapting and finding a better way. Particularly if there WAS some kind of entity pulling the strings on his involvement. They could very well decide to just replace him with some other poor schmuck if he tried to get out of...whatever their plan was.

He was pretty certain he didn't want to be a ninja. He wanted to learn to use chakra and fuinjutsu, but actually getting entangled in wars and invasions? Hard pass. He could always drop out of the academy and rely on self-study if that's what it took, or go into R&D. They had to have that, right?

What he did know was that he was going to try to avoid the main cast. He didn't feel he had it in him to intentionally be cruel to kids, but he was not going to go seeking them out. If they started showing up around him a bunch, he would take it as an omen.

Aside from impossible to answer questions and struggling to learn a whole new language (he was starting to think they used a different sentence structure than English), the main development was that he had found that his chakra spiked when he ate, particularly when he had the sugary applesauce. Even with the surge in energy, he still couldn't control his chakra for more than a few seconds, though he felt like he was making progress.

He had two plans for accelerating his practice when he got bigger. The first was a simple sugar high. Eat a bunch of sweets, use the resulting energy to practice, than crash. It wasn't that different from what normal kids did, so he felt it wouldn't seem that strange to observers. He found himself giggling at the idea that it was possible to use the sugar pills used in placebo experiments as mini-soldier pills.

The second was… more complex. Energy changes forms constantly. Chemical, thermal, kinetic, potential, electric, even mass: they were all interrelated. It stood to reason that chakra would be the same. Heck, he had already proven to himself that he could turn the chemical energy in his food into chakra!

Kiseki wanted to turn himself into a solar panel. He didn't have any numbers to work with, but if he could work out the way to make it happen, it would provide a good, easy method for chakra production.

It wouldn't be as easy as sitting in a fire and absorbing the thermal energy, but it was infinitely safer! Still, baby steps. He was years away from that at the very least. Instead he raced over to the small bookshelf and started looking at one of the picture books. Practicing his vocabulary was one thing he could at least TRY on his own.

The sooner he could have an actual conversation the better. Being a baby was torture...

* * *

**A/N: Still short, but should be twice as long as the previous chapter. The two would have fit together decently, but it feels wrong to have timeskips mid chapter, and the story allows a lot of important thoughts to occur at a time when there is limited interaction with the rest of the world. Next chapter should see a small skip to Kiseki being around 2 or so? It will help the poor kid feel like less of a prisoner, and open up some kind of actual interactions with the world. It should allow me to put out longer chapters, but will also mean I'll need more time to think up stuff to fill it with, so updates will take longer.**

**I am writing this a chapter at a time, so PLEASE give me your thoughts. What you did/didn't like, what you want to see, what you think would fallout from Kiseki's actions; every little bit helps me make a better story.**


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of yelling filled the air. Metal clanged against metal as children hid in bushes. The nee-chans - that is to say, the matrons of the orphanage - stood aside with hands covering their mouths as the hunt pressed on.

Kiseki merely continued to sit on the grass, fiddling with a leaf.

It wasn't long before a girl came running up and looked down at him.

"Kiseki, are you sure there are snipes here?"

Kiseki nodded. "Of course Sumiko! The ninja told me they're all over the place, but they only come out in dark loud places." The girl, Sumiko, pouted.

"Then why haven't we found them yet?"

Kiseki placed a finger to his lips and furrowed his brow as if in deep thought. "Maybe they don't know where to go? Try getting everyone to walk together, and keep making noise." Sumiko thought for a moment, before her face brightened in understanding.

"Good idea Kiseki," she yelled as she ran back to try to organize the troops.

Kiseki looked around at his handiwork with a grin. The gullibility of children never ceased to entertain.

Finally, one of the adults laughter broke around their fingers. Kiseki stood up and walked over to the building, intent on using the restroom. It was starting to get cool out anyway.

As he walked up, the matron who had kept it together the most stopped him tried to put on a stern face, though Kiseki could see the laughter in her eyes.

"Kiseki-kun, you said a ninja told you about these 'snipes'? Who were they?"

"Nobody Meiko-nee. Shunji and Kazutoshi were being loud, so I made it up to get them to be loud somewhere else." Behind Meiko, Yumeko's giggles doubled in volume.

In actuality, while the boys he named WERE being loud, Kiseki was used to it. He had spent 3 years in an orphanage filled with little kids; loudness was a fact of life. He just felt mischievous.

He wondered how long they would keep looking for the fictional little birds…

"Well, I think you managed that, though you shouldn't make up fibs. Now run inside, and wash up and we'll get you a snack."

"Hai Meiko-nee," he intoned as he walked inside and took off his sandals. Though she tried to seem stern, he could tell the matrons all found the situation rather humorous. Adults just weren't all that guarded around children.

As he stood on the bathroom stool and washed his hands, he forced himself to hold back a grimace as he looked in the mirror. While he had realized long ago that he was probably in a completely new body, it still felt unsettling to see a different face in the mirror. Briefly, he wondered if there was a psychological term for what he felt.

Besides, black hair and brown eyes were boring!

Deciding that wasn't a thought worth dwelling on, Kiseki pulled his attention back to reality and looked around the small bathroom, before pulling the leaf out of his pocket.

After 3 years, he had hit several growth spurts, and spent a good amount of time trying to manipulate chakra, which had paid dividends. He had an order of magnitude more chakra than he had first had, at least! If he had a drop when he first started, he now had a small cup. Nothing in comparison to the amount required to do any kind of spectacular jutsu, but it was progress.

Control came far easier than expected as well. After only a feel hours of getting a feel for it, he could move it around his body easily. It felt weird at first, somewhere in between moving a muscles and the ghost of a thought, but he could feel the slight heat moving around his body, even feel it diminishing as he continued to hold it. At first, he had been confused as to why it seemed to flow so easily, when he remembered the characters having to practice so long.

It didn't take him long to come to a conclusion though. Sakura had excellent control, a good mind, and poor physical conditioning. Naruto had terrible control, awful grades, and insane stamina. The two different energies that mixed to form chakra had different properties, and the ratio determined how the chakra worked.

Spiritual energy flowed easily, because it was a product of the mind and spirit. On its own it was ephemeral, a shadow of a shadow, nothing but a thought. Put simply, it was willpower manifest; it responded to your attempts to control it, because it WAS your control.

Physical energy, however, was thick and viscous. Left intact, it just sat in the bodies cells. Unlike spiritual energy, it couldn't be controlled, because it had nowhere to go. It was unconnected to the mind, but it was tangible. It was REAL.

Naruto didn't have terrible chakra control because he had too much chakra; he had terrible control because he had too much physical energy, so his chakra was like tar. He couldn't take just a drop for his use, but he got way more bang for his buck.

Sakura, however, had the opposite problem. She was overflowing with spiritual energy in relation to her physical energy, so her chakra flowed like water. She could easily control it, but it just wouldn't go as far.

Kiseki, then, was like Sakura Cubed. The mind of a man in his mid-20's in the body of a 3 year old. If her chakra was water, then his was a shadow. He could control it incredibly easily, but it was practically useless. He thought he remembered something about kids sticking a leaf to their body with chakra, and had found it both possible and easy.

For the first 30 seconds or so at least. After that, his chakra just stopped working. He could still vaguely feel it while directing it about his body, but it just didn't feel real. After one breakfast where he managed to get a bunch of sweet, sugary syrup, he found that he could almost last a minute.

He hadn't continued the leaf sticking exercise much after that. He tried it enough to practise moving chakra to different body parts, and periodically to test his growth, but aside from that he gave up improving his control for now. Starting so early would probably make things easier later on, but it was useless until he got bigger.

At least, he decided general control training was useless. Controlling chakra outside the body, and generating elemental chakra, however, was something that he could probably make some progress on.

He spent months practicing in bits and pieces as his chakra allowed, carrying around a leaf and slowly making progress on the different elements. After some thought as to what element his mind probably represented (it seemed as good a starting spot as any), he shrugged and decided on water. At least that was safe.

After he managed to get droplets of water to start forming consistently on the leaf, he switched to wind, and started trying to hesitantly slice it. He figured he didn't have dense enough chakra to hurt himself badly, but kids had sensitive skin. Still, he managed to make little nicks in the leaf, and soon he was able to cut almost a third of the way through a leaf with one pool of chakra.

He was hesitant about fire and lightning, so he tried earth next. That one took longer to see results, due to the length of time it took to work his way through a leaf. It was hard to tell what was natural drying, and what was chakra caused at first. However, like water and wind, earth too was managed with practice.

That only left the two more dangerous elements to go, which was what brought Kiseki to the bathroom in the first place. With a porcelain sink to contain things and provide water in case things got out of hand, it was the best place to try his hand at making fire.

Taking the dry leaf he had found and improved with earth chakra, he began to focus. He closed his eyes, trying to feel the sensations of flame as his mind pictured the atoms in the leaf tearing away from their bonds and oxidizing. He heard the crackle of a wood fire, smelt the smoke, saw the red glow of the flame, and felt the heat soaking into his body as he willed his chakra into the leaf. He'd been practicing this visualization for several days in preparation.

Suddenly, he realized that the heat felt a little TOO real, and dropped the leaf with a tiny gasp. There on the edge of the leaf was a small spark slowly burning away as he stuck his singed finger under the water to soothe it while glaring at the leaf.

Still, he had a start, even if it had cost him his chakra for the evening. Running the leaf under the water to remove the flame, he tossed it in the trashcan and ran out to see what snack he was going to get.

Chakra training always left him a bit hungry.

* * *

While laying in bed, Kiseki was brooding on his chakra situation. With three elements down, and a fourth showing signs of progress, he wasn't sure what he would do when he was done with the leaf exercise. Having the control was all well and good, but the chakra techniques were his main source of novelty. Now that he was with the other kids, he could gauge himself based on their progress with language skills, and he was already showing as much skill as he felt comfortable.

He was showing fast enough progress to be noteworthy, and was hiding even more, but even having the skills didn't let him really utilize them much. He could listen to conversations nobody would expect him to understand, and even glance at some of the higher skill level books while pretending to just look at the pictures and squiggles, but that was a far cry from actually being able to have a stimulating conversation.

Being limited by his physical energy wouldn't be so bad if he could just use his mental energy for something!

That thought lingered in his mind for a moment before an idea settled into his mind and his eyes snapped open, all traces of sleep vanishing.

First, physical and spiritual energy were just too much of a mouthful. Since he didn't know what the proper terminology was anyway, he decided to mentally call them Ki and Mana after a short internal debate. Neither was a perfect descriptor, but it fit well enough and made the issue at least FEEL more exciting.

Secondly, in connection with the new nicknames, why couldn't he use his mental energy for something? Across all the games and stories he had knowledge of, there were all kinds of mental powers, even ignoring ideas like telekinesis which would likely require Ki as well.

Telepathy, Empathic Reading, Scrying, the list went on. Heck, the Killing Intent he knew shinobi could pull off probably fit into that category as well! There were so many possibilities available!

Safety first though. Unlike with his chakra, where he barely had the energy to singe his fingers, he should have a good amount of mana.

Running through what options he had that were unlikely to either send people running in fear or fry his brain, he decided upon empathic projection. He wasn't bringing anything in, so his mind should be safe. It wasn't super overt, so it was unlikely to be discovered. And, if it worked like he thought, it should be pretty simple to try!

Deciding to roll with the energy he was feeling, he grabbed Inu-kun (The closest he had to a true friend, sadly. Kiseki was tempted to start calling him Wilson) and started trying to push his excitement into the stuffed animal. If he was right, prolonged attempts should enable Inu-kun to trigger the feeling with either contact or a mental touch.

It took Kiseki a while to fall asleep after these revelations, and he would spend the next day mentally exhausted as a result.

* * *

Kiseki's interest in the spiritual side of interest led to a flurry of new activities trying to squeeze some kind of skill out of his jumbled ideas. Pushing emotions and ideas into objects was proceeding slowly, if at all. While he thought he might be feeling a flicker of joy and comfort Inu-kun, it may have just been his hope messing with him.

In fact, that was his general conclusion about most of his attempts at psychic techniques. Maybe he was feeling the the idea of exhaustion he'd pushed into his pillow, or maybe he was just extra tired. Maybe he was feeling the happiness of the nee-chans when they hugged him or tousled his hair, or maybe he was just lavishing the affection more. Maybe he picked up Nobuhiko's irritation at his homework, maybe he just read his body language.

If nothing else, he supposed, it was an interesting distraction even if it didn't pan out. Still, at this point he was used to the idea of skills taking years to develop, so he wasn't too concerned. He was fairly conversationally fluent in his new language, but his vocabulary in it would need a ton of work. What limited time he got strolling around the city (the matrons kept a close eye on the younger children) had him hearing dozens of words he didn't have definitions for. So yeah, he was used to slow progress.

What was more disappointing was that he couldn't practice the remaining leaf exercises often. He was working on fire, and that was harder to hide and riskier to work with.

So, he came up with an idea to try to mesh his two work areas for the days where leaf training was impractical.

Kiseki knew little about the later parts of the Naruto storyline, but he knew tiny bits and pieces about sage mode and natural chakra. Specifically, he knew that trying to use natural energy was capital-D Dangerous.

But, he also knew that ALL chakra was supposedly made of both Ki and Mana (seriously, those nicknames saved so much time in his mental debates)! If something had spiritual energy, it must logically have a spirit.

Kiseki wanted to communicate with it.

He wasn't expecting anything to occur. Even if the natural chakra had a spiritual component, it may not be indicative of an actual mind, and if there WAS a mind, it would probably think at a speed he could never mesh with.

No, Kiseki fully expected that this would be a waste of his time, but he had to fill that time somehow. Besides, worst case scenario he was laying in the sunny grass, trying to control his mana and otherwise letting his mind wander.

In the tiny, microscopic, highly improbable chance that the world spoke back to him, though…

Well, lets just say it was one of the few hypothetical entities he could see having both means and motive to bring him here. He had questions.

Until that point, or he could think of something better to do, he would just spend some time enjoying the sun while shoving his thoughts at the earth. Typical 3 year old stuff.

* * *

Strolling through the village on a shopping expedition with some of the other children (and adult supervision, of course) gave Kiseki some of his main sources of novelty.

Specifically, he was contrasting the lifestyle of Konoha with the old world, and trying to wonder why there were such differences.

For instance, technology. Konoha had a far higher level of technology than really stood out in his memory of the series. Electric Lights, air conditioning, central heating; heck, the amount of plastic he saw on store shelves clearly implied some level of advanced manufacturing. You simply couldn't mass manufacture products like ramen cups without it.

So, why were other areas so limited in terms of technology? He could understand not having cars for every family like in his old life (you don't need them if your settlements are small and compact enough), but surely trucks or trains would be useful for shipping? Why were there no technologically advanced weapons?

After a few trips into the village proper and seeing how everyone lived, he think he had an answer: they didn't need it. It was as simple as that.

Seeing a ninja fly across the rooftops as a near blur convinced him. Guns? Most shinobi would laugh at even most modern guns, let alone the musket era. There never would have been a reason to spend time developing them.

Heck, the only reason people made them originally was because you didn't need to train people to use them. You could hand a musket to any peasant and they could fire.

But here? Shinobi were how wars were fought, and guns just didn't compare.

Sure, an ICBM or a stealth bomber would be devastatingly effective, but all the steps leading up to those inventions were already obsolete. The entire branch was basically dead in the water.

As for motorized vehicles, that required him to hazard a guess: the elemental nations were, as a whole, largely agrarian. They didn't need trucks to haul products, because most things were produced locally. Plus, storage seals were probably widely used for what mass shipping did occur.

And as for quick deliveries, the people who could afford to splurge on speed probably just hired shinobi couriers.

Though, the topic of storage seals did leave him wondering if they used a printing press to mass produce them…

Regardless, Kiseki took it upon himself to try to find more ways technology could benefit humanity. Maybe farm equipment?

Tilling could, and probably was, handled by earth jutsus. And they had pumps (the sink at the orphanage proved that), so watering could be handled easily as well. But surely planting and harvesting could be automated better, right?

Aside from that and trying to create or cheapen television/movie equipment, he was practically at a loss. Computers would of course be a huge step up (if there wasn't some university or something with one already), but he didn't know the first thing about getting that whole branch of science up and running.

Although, a telegraph system might be fairly simple…

Part of him cursed that he would get pulled into a world where his field of expertise was largely useless. Most of his schooling had been about manufacturing, since that's what his old world revolved around. But here? Manufacturing required a demand, and demand required both a need (or at least, a want) and opportunity.

Chakra cut off a huge chunk of the need aspect, and if society truly was agricultural, than the average person didn't have a ton of money to burn.

It really made him appreciate how interconnected everything was in his old life. Maybe he could at least share his knowledge, write it down, and give his new (hopefully temporary) home a head start if they ever switch to a manufacturing based society.

It would kind of cool to be known as the Father of Manufacturing, even if he had managed to find his way back to his family by that point.

He may be able to save them from the whole 'global warming' issue while he was at it, especially with them having chakra at their disposal. Pretty much every element could be used to generate electricity, even ignoring the potential seals likely had.

Besides, with giant animals like toads and slugs running around, air pollution may have a much more drastic effect on them.

Kiseki sighed internally. Thinking of the old world always left him feeling homesick. He tried to just put those thoughts aside and listen to the conversations around him as his little expedition began the walk back to the orphanage.

* * *

**A/N: Another chapter down. I spent quite a bit of time on the wiki actually looking up information to see if Kiseki's ideas would actually work and were valid, and to the best of my knowledge, it's accurate. The yin/yang energy issue, the strange tech development; this is my attempt at explaining why it is how it is. I'm probably, if anything, kind of underestimating how much chakra Kiseki would have, but the explanation for that whole chestnut will likely be in the next chapter or two, which will likely also put a stop to the rambling train of thought style in favor of a more conventional format.**

**That's right, I'm going to have to try to come up with actual world development, not just loose ideas. Still, please remember to post your thoughts on the story so far in the comments!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: More delayed than I intended, but real life got in the way and I had to struggle with the second part of the chapter. **

**Redhawk29: You are correct, chakra is formed from mixing spiritual and physical energy. However, it is established canon that the ratio can be altered to rather amazing effect. This is Yin/Yang release, not to be confused with Yin-Yang release which is a combination of the two. If it still seems unbelievable to manipulate one alone, just think of it is a little bit of physical energy and a ton of mental energy. As for the mana/ki issue, I went with what seemed like reasonable names a fantasy fan might give them, and while both are a metaphysical, spiritual type of energy, ki is generally depicted in media as having physical effects: Monks in D&D, the characters of Dragon Ball, etc. Kiseki will likely find out about the proper names for the two types of energy soon.**

**As for a beta, I am not against the idea but have no idea where to try to find one.**

* * *

His 5th year had started off well. Allowed to roam the city unaccompanied at long last, his ability to practice chakra manipulation was greatly enhanced. Tree walking had come rather easily once he got old enough to stop worrying about hurting himself with a nasty fall, though water walking had taken several weeks of practice. It probably would have been far easier on still water instead of the isolated creek he found, but he had time to spend.

When he felt like practicing away from the creek, he tried pushing chakra from his fingertips to create chakra strings. Having spent many a night in bed lost in thought, he hypothesized that chakra control could probably be divided into three or four categories. Control inside the body, control outside the body, and elemental nature conversion. Having reached the limits of what he felt he could achieve with the leaf exercises and wall walking, there was little he could do to improve his internal control and nature conversions.

Hence, chakra strings to practise external control. Conceptually simple, low energy, and easy to see the results. It would also be an extremely versatile skill when mastered.

The fourth potential category of control, which he had hit a complete block on, was changing the balance between mana and ki. His attempts to harness pure mental energy had gone nowhere. It was almost certainly similar to elemental nature, but the exercises he had developed to practice had failed. In short, he needed instruction to go any further with chakra control.

That realization would have hit a lot harder if he didn't now have access to the Konoha Public Library. It was far smaller than he was used to in his old life, a consequence of a smaller population and lower literacy rate, but it was a lifesaver nonetheless. It had led to an explosion in his vocabulary; he could probably find his way to the library's dictionary in his sleep, from all the times he'd confirmed puzzled out definitions.

He hummed softly to himself as he walked back towards the orphanage before curfew hit, before he saw something that stopped him in his tracks: a familiar fan symbol on the back of a man's shirt further down the road. His good mood evaporated.

The massacre would be happening...soon. He didn't know when, hadn't known even before he spent 5 years away from the reference material, but he figured it was sometime between the ages of 5 to 7 for Naruto and, by extension, Kiseki.

With his stomach plunging to somewhere between the Earth's mantle and core, the realization that there were lives in his hands was like a blast of water to the face. Could he keep the knowledge to himself, when it could very well get him killed? He started walking again as his thoughts whirled.

He couldn't prevent the massacre on his own, the very idea was laughable, and the only person that would actually be able to stop it was the Hokage. Could he find a way to bring it to his attention while keeping his past secret?

He didn't think so. The Hokage would be a master politician and assassin; his odds of getting away with that level of deceit was infinitesimal, likewise with his odds of not having to explain in detail. It was simply too grand of an accusation for Sarutobi to not dig for the truth.

Additionally, any deception would lead to a level of scrutiny he didn't want.

No. If he chose to act, he would need to come clean and lay his cards on the table. The real question was, SHOULD he act?

Morally, there was no question. He would not be the one pulling the metaphorical trigger, but he was long familiar with the hypothetical trolley problem. If he could knowingly prevent their deaths and refused to do so, their blood would be on his hands, and there were certainly innocent Uchiha out there.

He knew Itachi was ordered to carry out the massacre, but he didn't know who had ordered it, or how little time they had to react to the planned coup. He felt the odds of a better resolution were high enough to justify acting in this regard.

In regards to the fallout of sharing his knowledge, things were less clear. All the changes he could expect were positive; stop Akatsuki from getting off the ground, cut off the Sound Invasion, maybe even prevent the misery of Wave. Heck, knowing who ends up winning the Mist civil war could possibly get a quicker, less bloody resolution in place.

He wasn't too concerned about any hypothetical differences from canon as the Hokagewould certainly confirm his knowledge. What DID concern him was the possibility of the end result being worse. In the wake of whatever unpleasantness, it was possible that there would be an era of peace that would actually lead to less total bloodshed then if the plot was prevented entirely.

Since he had never really heard the canon ending, he couldn't answer that hypothetical. Flipping the question around however, if someone had been in position to prevent World War II and refused to act in that logic, he would consider them a monster.

Fine. No allowing catastrophes in hope of some glorious future, utilitarianism be damned. Humans sucked at predictions anyway. If nothing else, acting would get him help towards going home. Training, research assistance, an end to hiding his true capabilities; there were some strong personal incentives towards acting.

The only remaining factor at play was the circumstances of his arrival. He had found stories of the style he found himself in, the so-called "self-insert", to be little more than wish fulfillment, but to his knowledge they generally kept their secrets. Was that the right choice?

The question swirled in his mind for a minute without resolution, so he decided to start from the bottom.

An entity of some kind almost certainly brought him here. There was a possibility that was false, but if it was then the point was moot. So, why was he brought here? The reasons for bringing someone in general were, what, to 'improve' things and/or bring entertainment? That was a point in favor of acting, he supposed.

He had to assume that he was picked for a reason. Even if there was an element of error in the process, that would still imply that he was at least close to the intended target. So what were they looking for?

It wasn't his knowledge of the series; there were far more fanatical fans out there, and the same could be said for any other fiction he knew of.

Likewise, it wouldn't be his knowledge of science and logic, for there were others who would be a far greater fit.

As the orphanage pulled into view, he came to the conclusion that the only reason his selection made sense was if it was made because of his experiences as a whole, and if he was picked because of who he was, then wouldn't they expect him to use his judgement?

The thought was grim. All paths lead to taking action, and he had to act fast since the deadline was a mystery.

There was no real way to prepare for such an event, and the wait would be pure agony even if he could. As much as he wanted to shy away, he couldn't allow himself to.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would speak with the Hokage.

He grimaced as he realized he probably wouldn't sleep well tonight.

* * *

Kiskei's stomach warred with his exhaustion as he approached the Academy. Despite the vague memories he had of the Hokage working out of the Hokage Tower, his office was actually inside the Academy, which functioned as a central hub for the village's shinobi infrastructure. Mission assignment, instruction, information and communication; everything flowed from the Academy.

Idly, he supposed that was why Iruka was present when Naruto got his mission to Wave.

Not for the first time Kiseki wondered if he was right to avoid eating breakfast, but with the single most important meeting of his life occurring today, he was worried about losing said breakfast. That would leave any hopes of a positive first impression dead in the water.

The questioning glances he got as he followed the signs to the mission assignment area weren't helping. He needed to take a moment and force himself to relax as much as possible as he saw the elderly shinobi sitting at a table before a genin team receiving a mission.

Catching his attention, a shinobi in a flak jacket moved in from the side and began to speak to him. "Hey kiddo. You lost?"

Nerves boiling over, Kiseki slowly shook his head. "No shinobi-san. I was told to come find Hokage-sama by Uzumaki Naruto-san."

The shinobi quirked a brow and a slight grin at that. "Uzumaki-san? Are you sure you're not the victim of his latest prank?"

"No sir. He said it's very important."

He got a bemused shake of his head as his response. "Well, Hokage-sama is busy assigning a mission at the moment, but if you wait to the side for a bit I will let him know you wish to speak with him when he has a free moment."

Kiseki put on what he hoped was a realistic shy smile before nodding and moving to the side. Hoping to try to soothe his nerves, he forced himself to try to breathe deeply and slowly.

Nothing in either of his lives had prepared him for such a sudden meeting with the man who has essentially a combination of president, assassin, and superhero. With time seeming to crawl forward, he wasn't sure how long it took for a break to appear in the string of shinobi arriving for missions and for him to get waved forward to stand before the table.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the deadliest man Kiseki had ever met, greeted him with the type of kind smile adults everywhere show to small children.

"Hello young man. What is your name?"

"Kiseki, Hokage-sama."

"Hello Kiseki-kun. Takahiro-san tells me Naruto-kun sent you to find me?" Kiseki jerkily nodded. "And may I ask why?"

Kiseki gulped and glanced at the shinobi seated next to Sarutobi. He prayed this would work. "He said it was a secret, that I should only tell you…"

The old man let out a small chuckle at that. "Indeed? Well, I suppose we should step into my office for a moment then."

Kiseki hoped that it was just nerves making the sound of the door closing so ominous. Sarutobi walked a bit into the room before turning and smiling at him.

"Now, what does Naruto-kun want?"

Kiseki paused momentarily, not sure what the best move was.

"I...apologize for the fib, Hokage-sama, but I made that part up. I came to give you important information."

There was a flash of surprise in Sarutobi's eyes. "...I see. And what is this information?"

"It is, and I hope this is the right term, S-class. I would feel more comfortable if you were the only one to hear this."

Hiruzen's face was stone as he stared at Kiseki. As the moments dragged on, fear started to race through the young boy that he had made a grave miscalculation.

At long last, the Hokage slowly nodded, and performed a series of hand signs. Kiseki neither knew nor cared how many there were.

When he finished his seals, the Hokage lowered his arms, and walked behind the desk and took his seat. Kiseki hoped that the briefest instance where he turned his back was a slight show of trust.

Folding his hands on the desk, Sarutobi finally addressed the boy. "Speak Kiseki-kun."

Swallowing, Kiseki tried to find his voice. "I...I think the best place to start would be the beginning. It is unbelievable, bordering on impossible, but it is the only way to explain how I know this information.

"I was born 5 years ago, mere days before the Kyuubi attack. But before that, I was an adult in another world, one far different from this one."

Kiseki paused here, giving the Hokage a chance to interject. With a face nearly as immoble as its likeness carved on the mountain, he did so.

"So if I am to believe this story, you are...what, a reincarnate?"

Kiseki hesitated at that. "...I'm not sure what I am, but right now that is not the important part.

"In the other world, there was a story of this one. A work of fiction, or so we thought. The life story of one Uzumaki Naruto. You know a good deal of the story already; you've watched him grow up, and you know this world better than I ever will. What I do know, however, is how that story goes."

The hokage's head actually tilted backwards slightly at that, his voice flat as he responded. "You are saying you know the future? That this story told you what is to come?"

Kiseki nodded slowly. "I believe so. I would urge you to confirm my information, but I suspect you would do so regardless of my warning. I can not guarantee this world is perfectly aligned with the story I know of."

Kiseki saw a whisper of movement along the jaw of the old man, before he slowly exhaled audibly.

"Do you have any proof as to the veracity of this claim?"

"I will allow a Yamanaka to scan my mind if you wish, but all I have as evidence is knowledge. For that, I can offer you this: I can tell you two S-class secrets made by you yourself. Regardless of how this ends, know that I will not reveal these or any other secrets of Konoha without your permission." Kiseki swallowed. "I hope that will keep you from treating me as a potential information leak."

A glimmer of shock flashed over Sarutobi's face, before a look of weariness took its place. "I hope that I will never reach the point where I would willingly order the death of someone so young."

At that, Kiseki felt a spark of hope break through the emotional fatigue brought on by the stress of the previous 24 hours. "Thank you." Maybe this would go off without a hitch…

The Hokage nodded. "What are these secrets you can offer as evidence?"

"Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Namikaze Minato, and Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

The elderly shinobi deflated, sagging into his chair. The room was silent, Kiseki shifting on his feet as he let his partner process the conversation thus far.

Finally, Sarutobi broke the silence. "...

I believe you, at least partially. Either you do have some special information, or this is the weirdest espionage attempt ever." Kiseki snorted at that, the edge of his worry sliding off at the attempt at humor. "What do you have to tell me?"

"I never learned the whole story, so I can't give you all the details, but there are 3 main issues I can tell you about. One of them, the most minor of them, will occur soon. The others are larger in scale, but aren't for another 6 or 7 years."

"Tell me everything, starting with the most imminent issue."

Kiseki nodded. "Uchiha Itachi is going to murder his entire clan except his younger brother Sasuke. Supposedly, it was on official orders because the Uchiha clan was planning a…", he paused to think of the right translation, "coup. I cannot say whether you approved those orders, or if Danzo gave them."

Sarutobi's face was grim. "...And you say this is the least important of the issues? What are the others, another bijuu attack and the apocalypse?"

Kiseki blinked. "Well… not in the way mean? The first is an invasion of Konoha by Suna and the newly formed village of Oto, led by Orochimaru, and including the Ichibi Jinchurriki That happened during the chunin exams here when Naruto is 12 or so. The second is a group of S-class missing nin called Akatsuki gathering the bijuu for…" He furrowed his brow, "well, I'm not certain on the details, but I'm sure you can gather it's world changing. They start working around the same time I believe, but don't become truly active for around 3 years after that."

The hokage cursed before angrily snatching up his pipe and lighting it, taking in a deep drag and releasing. Kiseki could practically see the thoughts racing through his mind, and allowed him time to do so.

"In your view, is there anything we can do about these later events right now?"

Kiseki wearily shook his head. "Nothing I can think of right now Hokage-sama, but I am not thinking too clearly. Preparing for this conversation was exhausting."

The Hokage nodded. "Then we will come back to that at a later time. Is there any other information you can offer me on the Uchiha issue?"

"No Hokage-sama."

"Very well. I am making your secret and the information you have given me an S-class secret. You are not to tell anyone without permission, understand?"

Kiseki felt a surge of relief momentarily cut through his exhaustion. "Can I assume that means I'm not going to be locked away like a zoo animal?" At the Hokage's affirmative, Kiseki grinned as his head started to swim from the relief of tension. Clarity struck him like an asteroid.

"...I think I'm gonna pass out." He would have cherished the look of shock on the old man's face if he would have seen it as the world faded away from him. He would cherish the bruise from hitting the floor significantly less.

* * *

That, Hiruzen reflected, was likely the single least expected conversation he had ever had. Letting the medical ninjutsu he had performed to scan the strange boy end, his mind began to whir through possible plans and contingencies.

He didn't believe the unconscious child's words completely by any means, but the delivery was concerning. With his decades of practice reading people, Sarutobi could easily see the fear and exhaustion the boy was operating under, and underneath that the belief that the tale he was spinning was genuine. That counted for something, even if the child's belief was misplaced. What really made him pay attention was the secrets revealed, even if the Kyuubi was the village's worst kept secret. He could count the number of people that should know Naruto's parentage on one hand, and that should not include a 5-year old kid. No, either there was something behind his claim or there had been a leak of enormous magnitude. Sarutobi WOULD be getting to the bottom of it one way or another, starting with sending a message to Jiraiya to be back in the village yesterday, and looking into this claim of an Uchiha coup/massacre in the near future. The magnitude of the stated problems was simply too great to ignore. He'd see what his sources could turn up, and speak with a more-rested Kiseki in a few days when Jiraiya is back.

With a quick pulse of chakra, the special seals inscribed in the office to muffle sound and blur vision faded away, and his ANBU guards retook their positions.

"Usagi, take Kiseki here to the Academy nurse until he wakes up. When he does, inform him that he will be summoned in a few days, and remind him that the contents of our discussion are to remain confidential. Additionally, setup a discreet protection detail for him until said summon occurs." It would not do for an 'accident' to befall the boy if their conversation had been noted.

Stepping outside to inform the day's chunin administrators that he was now indisposed, Sarutobi could feel the headache starting to form as he started to slip back into warmode.

He would not tolerate any threats to his home.

* * *

**A/N: That's it for now, hopefully everything is believable enough. Particularly, I hope I conveyed how nerve-wracking and exhausting a meeting like that would actually be. The most unlikely part there is that Kiseki could actually manage to make it to the end of the conversation to pass out. Regardless, with the first meeting out of the way, things should hopefully flow better from here.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Man, this chapter felt rough. Largely due to trying to write far more (important) dialogue than I'm used to while trying to avoid walls of exposition. Combine that with getting hooked on some new games for a while and some real life drama, and I was left struggling to match my motivation up with my free time. I feel that future chapters should be able to come out faster after this.  
**

* * *

Kiseki stared out at the river, eyes unfocused, as he sat in thought. Ever since he woke up after his chat with the Hokage, he'd been hard at work looking through his memories and trying to scrounge together any information he could recall now that he was actually in a position to help out.

He'd found a small pad of paper and a pen in the village, and had been filling it with notes for the last 4 days. After a short internal debate, he decided to write his notes in English. Presumably, he could pass his jittery cursive off as "cool squiggles" if anyone saw it. He may have come clean to the Hokage, but it would still be bad to have anyone else figure things out. A list of S-rank criminals and future events would be tough to explain.

After he woke up in the academy infirmary, he had been told by an ANBU agent that he would be summoned by the Hokage in the near future, and pointedly reminded of the meeting's secrecy. That had gone without saying in his eyes, but he supposed it didn't hurt to make sure.

As he was mentally running through the people he could remember hearing about in Kumo, a hand came down on his shoulder. He flinched, but managed to avoid shouting in surprise.

Unfortunately, his reflexes had him trying to jump and turn to face this new threat, which didn't agree with the fact that he was currently seated on the railing of a bridge.

When his mind caught up to his body, he found himself staring down at the water, being held up by the back of his collar and the waist of his bands. As he was hauled back onto the bridge, he looked over his shoulder.

"Uh...thanks ANBU-san."

Any reaction the masked kunoichi gave was imperceptible until he had his feet under him once again. "Konoha no Kiseki, the Hokage would like to speak with you."

THAT was new. Was that his legal name, he wondered? He'd always just been called Kiseki since he got here. Still, he had more pressing concerns. He hummed in thought.

"Okay ANBU-san. Are you able to help me get there, or should I just start walking?"

The animal mask tilted ever so slightly. "A shunshin will get you there quickly, if you wish."

"Okay, what do I…"

At this point, he felt chakra flood his body as he was lifted off the ground and the world blurred past him for a brief eternity, and suddenly he was at the academy. His legs gave out as they arrived and he collapsed.

That was bizarrely uncomfortable. The chakra must have protected him from the massive acceleration, but his subconscious didn't know he was safe from his organs flattening against his skeleton and panicked regardless.

This was really not how he expected today to go…

"Apologies Kiseki-san, a side-along shunshin is quite unpleasant and is generally not done except in emergencies."

Somehow, the words managed to filter into the mind of the shaking boy on the ground.

"This...this is an emergency then?"

"No, but you requested assistance getting here quickly."

Kiseki stared at the kunoichi, mouth opening in shock. "I… that…"

The ANBU pointed at a nearby door. "The Hokage's office is down that hall." With that, she vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sadist, Kiseki grumbled internally as he picked himself off the ground. As he walked down the hall, he found himself in the mission assignment room, albeit with a distinct lack of people.

After a brief look around didn't reveal the expected secretary or admin-nin, he decided to just knock on the door the Hokage had led him through the other day. Mere moments later, he found himself staring up at the man himself.

"Ah, Kiseki-san. Perfect timing. I'm pleased you could join my student and I for a chat."

That got his attention. "Student?" Looking past the village leader who was leading him into the room, he spotted a familiar figure looking his way. "Jiraiya? I wasn't expecting to see you so soon…"

"Is that so?" the sannin queried as he examined Kiseki from his position leaned against the wall. At that, Kiseki was caught off-guard; that sounded almost accusatory!

"I, um, figured you'd be out of the village. I assumed I'd end up meeting you eventually, just not so soon."

"I have my ways of getting around. Imagine my surprise when sensei told me of some kid who got his hands on some _very_ interesting knowledge."

Okay, he wasn't imagining it. Definitely accusatory. Just as he was about to start trying to stammer out an explanation to the sannin staring a hole through him, the hokage spoke up:

"Are you quite done Jiraiya?"

Suddenly, the intense focus on him backed off. "Yeah yeah. No self-respecting shinobi would react that way."

Kiseki looked between the two wide-eyed. "Wait, was that some kind of test?!"

The hokage, who had apparently sat down at his desk and picked up his pipe while Kiseki was distracted hummed in response.

"A simple one, but yes. As you have likely gathered, I informed Jiraiya of our previous conversation, and he was a bit skeptical of your story. Speaking of our conversation, you seem remarkably calmer…"

"I _was _feeling less concerned about being thrown in a cell, before I walked into an inquisition. I don't blame you for having doubts, but first the shunshin and now this? I'm too old for these kind of shocks." Realizing what he said, he blinked and looked down at his hands. "Or, I suppose not, depending on how you look at it..."

Looking up, he saw Jiraiya looking sheepish. "Yeah, sorry kid. Had to make sure you weren't some kind of infiltrator. It would be a bold strategy, but you have to admit your story is pretty unbelievable."

Even the recent scare couldn't prevent Kiseki from sighing at that. "Tell me about it. Five years here and I still have trouble believing it. Just, try to let me find another way to prove it than scaring me to death."

"Now then Jiraiya, if you are done testing our young companion, perhaps we can begin actually speaking. Please feel free to sit Kiseki-san. Though, I suppose you likely have a name you prefer."

The boy glanced over at the chair a pace away before stepping towards it. "Hmm. I suppose this might take a while, won't it? Thank you for the offer. As for a name," he began as he climbed up onto the chair in front of the Hokage's desk, "that is a bit of a complex issue. I have had 5 years to think about my situation here, and I feel that Kiseki is what it would be best to call me. You can even drop the honorifics, we didn't use them back home."

"Huh? You don't want to use your actual name?" Jiraiya cut in. Kiseki folded his hands in front of him and rolled his eyes upwords in thought. 'How to word this…', he hummed in thought.

"Where I come from, there is a...concept - an idea - that names have power. Fittingly it was called a…" he struggled for the translation, "Real Name?" He paused. " ...No, True Name. The concept varied; sometimes it was a hidden, magical name, sometimes it was just the name their parents gave them. Sometimes only spirits could use them, other times anyone could. Likewise, what could be done with them varied. But, in every version, someone else knowing your true name gives them tremendous power over you."

"The Benihisago…" the hokage spoke thoughtfully.

That left the boy stumped. What on earth was a red gourd and why did the old shinobi seem so interested in it?

Seeing his confusion, Jiraiya clued him in. "The Benihisago is a legendary tool said to have been used by the Sage of Six Paths. In combination with the Kokinjo and the Shichiseiken, it could be used to draw out and seal away a being's word soul. It sounds different in practice than what you described but in essence…" the sannin trailed off with a shrug. His response was the small boy freezing momentarily, before letting out what he assumed was some form of profanity and burying his face in his hands with a groan.

After a moment, the hands fell away, and Jiraiya saw a face filled with childish indignation. "I had hoped I was simply being overly precautious, that this would be the most… unusual concern I would have to worry about. Now I find out that this is an established concept here; I suppose I will just have to consider every possibility, no matter how impossible. Would it really be too much to be told what rules I have to follow before appearing here with no explanation?"

"Easy kid, the sacred tools of the sage are one of a kind, more legend than actual threat. The chances of you having to deal with them are tiny. I'm more interested in what you said at the end there. You've really got no idea why you're here?" Jiraiya queried.

"Best I have is a guess," Kiseki admitted. "Put it this way: Hokage-sama, if you were in my situation, stranded in a different world, what would you think the reason would be."

The Sandaime blinked before frowning in thought. "I would probably assume it had something to do with ninjutsu or my shinobi experience," he admitted.

Kiseki nodded. "And Jiraiya, you'd probably assume something similar. Ninjutsu or fuinjutsu." Kiseki shrugged, "maybe even to teach people the Ways of the Super Pervert. You two are experts in your field, the best of the best. I didn't have that; I was well educated, well-read, and though it feels arrogant to say, I even had a good amount of natural talent.

"However, in every possible area I can think of, there were always people better suited. Even in the fields I was best at, I would place myself at like chunin level compared to the experts? The only answers that make sense are if I wasn't intentionally picked, or I have some precise combination of knowledge and traits that make me the best choice." Kiseki grimaced, "I suppose this 'Benihisago' thing might support that theory. True names were kind of a minor concept even in fiction, I imagine most people don't even know about them back home."

Seeing that his conversational partners were thinking over his latest statement, Kiseki started wracking his memory for other concepts he may need to prepare for. While internally debating whether or not Japan had a vampire equivalent, and therefore he should start carrying around garlic, he was pulled out of his thoughts.

"I think," Hiruzen began slowly with his hands steepled on the desk in front of him, "that we shall have to accept your arrival as a mystery to be looked into in the future. I believe our efforts are better focused on the present. The question must be asked, Kiseki-san: Ignoring the reason for your arrival, what are YOUR plans here?"

The boy blinked at that, scooting backwards in the chair he was far too small to fill. That was surprisingly too the point; he'd expected it to be brought up more subtly.

"Well, I'd like to go home. I didn't have a wife and kids or anything, but I still had a life and family there. Getting to truly explore a new world is exciting, but to them I probably just vanished. I can't imagine how horrible that must feel…"

Sorrow flickered across the seated shinobi's face. "To lose a loved one suddenly is indeed a tragedy. However, I am sorry to say that your goal will not be easy; to cross the boundary between worlds… most would say it is an impossible task."

Kiseki deflated in his seat. "I knew it would likely fall on my shoulders alone, yet I had held out hope that there was some known method…"

The room fell quiet as Kiseki held a deep breath before letting it go.

"Okay. I'll just have to figure it out myself, then! Hokage-sama, I propose a partnership." Kiseki pulled out his notebook and held it up. "Over the last few days I have written down all the details I can remember about this world. The disasters I mentioned before, the perpetrators, all of it. It is yours. All I ask is assistance in my goal of going home."

Surprise tried to ambush his conversational partners, and was promptly kicked aside as Jiraiya responded: "...you're not really good at negotiating, are you kid?"

Said kid pouted. "Hey, it's not like I want to keep the information from you. If I did, I never would have come forward. I'm just getting to the heart of the issue. Besides, it feels monstrous to try to extort someone over life-saving information."

The hokage stared across the table towards Kiseki and his pocket notebook, face inscrutable. "So you give us that notebook and in return we look into a way of getting you home? That's it?"

"Well, I'd like instruction on chakra and jutsu so I can work as well, but essentially yes. I'm open to an exchange of other knowledge as well - scientific, cultural, what-have-you - but that's a separate issue. The only other detail is that I'll have to translate the notes, since I wrote them in my language, and it is vastly different. In fact, learning your language might be the whole reason I was turned into an infant instead of just brought here more directly." With that, Kiseki gently tossed it onto the desk, where the Sandaime picked it up and flipped through it.

"There's not much here," he noted. Indeed, the notes only covered a dozen pages in strange, looping scribbles. "Regardless, the importance of this information cannot be understated. You will have your training, Kiseki-san, and any other aid we can give." He handed the notebook over to the boy - Man, he mentally corrected himself - seated in the chair in front of him.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. Thank you. Are you ready for details?" Seeing the hokage grab the brush on his desk and reply with an affirmative, Kiseki continued: "The best place to begin is probably at the source. The organizer behind the organization that will be known as Akatsuki. I have heard three names for him: the first name he went by, an obvious alias, was Tobi. I believe he wore an orange mask with one eye hole and the standard Akatsuki robe, which was black with red clouds. The other names I heard him called were both Uchiha: Madara and Obito." The sweeping sound of a brush on paper stopped.

"Both of those men are long dead." The Hokage retorted.

"They certainly should be, but at least one of them isn't. I would lean towards Obito, Since Madara would be in his 80's during these events, but it may be both for all I know. Their goal is to capture all nine bijuu for their own use. Akatsuki is an organization of S-rank shinobi they will lead from the shadows to accomplish this task, operating in teams of two. The members were: Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame, a suiton user and wielder of Samehada. Sasori, puppet user of Suna, and Deidara, an Iwa nin who uses explosive clay. Kakuzu, a shinobi who uses some kind of black threads, and Hidan, a Jashin worshipper who uses some kind of scythe."

The brush stopped again. "I've never heard of this Jashin. Have you, Jiraiya?"

"Can't say I have, sensei."

Kiseki frowned. "That's unfortunate, because the only other information I have on the pair is that both Kakuzu and Hidan have some kind of immortality." If the discussion wasn't so serious, he would have really savored the looks of shock on the faces of the two older shinobi.

It was Jiraiya who recovered first. "Im-immortal? As in, 'can't be killed', immortal?"

"Yes, though Hidan fit that description better, I believe. Both are able to be beaten with enough power and ingenuity, but I'm afraid I am unsure how they were handled in the original tale."

He gave them a minute to recover from that. Even in a world where the supernatural was common, immortality was not something they expected to face off against.

When Hiruzen had recovered and reluctantly added to his notes, he spoke up. "I hesitate to even ask, but is that all the members of this Akatsuki?"

"I'm afraid not. There was also Zetsu, who was some kind of black and white plantman who I believe was an infiltration specialist. The last three, I am sorry to say, have ties to you Jiraiya-san. The first of the three is Orochimaru, but he had a falling out and left the organization." He paused. "He has left the village, right? Please tell me I'm not breaking that news too," he pleaded.

Kiseki could feel the mood drop in the room. While Hiruzen merely closed his eyes in sadness, Jiraiya's hands were clenched so tightly Kiseki felt he could nearly hear the bones grinding together. "Orochimaru," he growled out, "fled the village 4 years ago when his 'experiments' were uncovered."

Kiseki lowered his head in sympathy. "I am sorry. I did not think of how fresh this may have been. Please, take a moment if you need it."

"No, keep going," the sannin retorted, "I refuse to let Orochimaru's betrayal keep us from cutting this new threat off at the knees."

"Jiraiya-kun is right. While Orochimaru has caused the village a great deal of pain, we must continue to push onward." The hokage was quiet as he spoke, but hard resolve was written across his face.

The youngest in the room nodded slowly. "As I said, the last two are also from your past. Konan, a user of paper-based ninjutsu, and Nagato, nominal leader of the Akatsuki." When he looked up after speaking, he saw confusion on the sannin's face.

"Konan, the ame kid I taught? Leaving aside the fact that those kids are supposed to be as dead as Madara, who is this Nagato?"

Kiseki paused. "Nagato. You know, one of the other kids you taught. The one with the rinnegan?" Was he misremembering the name?

"Eh? The one with the rinnegan was Heiwa, the other girl in the group."

The boy stared at white-haird man in shock. "Heiwa...girl?"

Jiraiya glanced at his mentor, before looking at the stunned kid. "Yesss? Red-headed girl, rinnegan, would be about...25 if she is still alive?" As Jiraiya watched, the boy blinked senselessly a few times before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "...I'm guessing something's wrong?"

After a moment, Kiseki opened his eyes and looked at the sannin. "One of the most powerful figures in this whole story is fundamentally different than I remember, and I don't know why. What else could be drastically off without me knowing?" He blinked. "This could be really, really bad!" He was panicking now; he _knew_ he was panicking. Knowing it didn't help.

"Kiseki-san, please calm down. Surely someone having a different gender isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things." Hiruzen spoke calmly trying to calm the boy who had just stood up frantically.

The argument was enough to stop the named boy from beginning to pace worriedly. "I...well, no. On its own, it's not bad, but what else is different? Is anyone different in more meaningful ways? Even if other people are different genders, that could cause all kinds of changes. If your father had been female, _you wouldn't be here._" He groaned and pressed his hands against his eyes. "Why does this have to be so difficult?!

* * *

**A/N: Because this way I can work in whatever other weird ideas I get. You should understand that, Kiseki.**

**So about the NagatoHeiwa change: I decided practically on a whim that if I worked in a few intentional changes, it would open up new avenues with which to torment our protagonist with. To start off, I looked up a randomized generator for this kind of thing and took the first couple of results (that could be applied), and saved them. One of them was: "A major villain is gender swapped." One d10 roll later (Akatsuki plus Orochimaru and minus Zetsu (that would have just felt pointless)), and here we are. Heiwa simply means peace, to match Nagato's character.**

**I have a couple other changes and plot points jotted down for later, but if you have anything specific you'd like to see, drop it in a comment and I'll probably work it in. We're not very far into the story yet, so there's little chance of retcon issues so far.**

**As for the other Akatsuki stuff, I was trying to walk a fine line. As mentioned in chapter 1, I'm trying to do this story simulation style. Kiseki is stuck trying to recall knowledge that is five years old, at minimum, and mostly second hand. It doesn't help that, until I started researching for writing this, that I didn't know most of the canon details for the war and the whole Madara/Obito issue. That was all after my time here, for the most part.**

**The fun part will be when it becomes relevant that something I believed was canon is actually fanon. THAT could lead to some issues down the line for poor Kiseki!**

**Regardless, I have a ton of research and brainstorming notes for the future from the last few months. It's honestly amazing the kind of information you can pull from a show when you analyze it. The kazekage retrieval arc gave me a frame of reference for the distance from Suna to Konoha, which I could leverage to calculate shinobi travel speed and world size, and from there to an estimate on "global" population.**

**But that's getting a bit far ahead. Now that the boring, but necessary information reveal is over (The Akatsuki stuff needed to be discussed because of the story premise), we can get to some actual content! We are more or less out of story setup!**


	6. Chapter 6

The sound of birdsong that filled the early morning air went unnoticed by the boy sitting along with his thoughts in a clearing at the outer fringes of Konohagakure no Sato. Though he sat calmly, arms folded and his back against the trunk of one of the villages signature trees, the occasional twitch of his eyelids or shifting of his jaw would betray the churning of his mind to a close observer.

After handing over and discussing what he knew of the future with the Hokage and his student, they quickly broke apart. The trained shinobi were too professional, and the newfound knowledge too vital, for them to simply sit and wait. Information had to be gathered, plans had to be made, and logistics analyzed. As the odd man out with next to no first-hand knowledge on how their system worked, Kiseki found himself essentially shunted off to the side with a promise to meet in two days to discuss preliminary plans.

From the Hokage's office, Kiseki headed to a place he knew well: the library. While he had generally stuck to fiction as an easy way to learn the language, he now sought information like a drowning man sought safety. The revelation that Nagato was actually a girl named Heiwa here left him nervous. So, he sought to confirm his knowledge.

It did not take long to confirm what he knew. The 5 major villages? The warring clans era, followed by the founding of Konoha by the Uchiha and Senju clans? The order of the Hokage? All as he knew them to be, with seemingly no differences. Everything he could find an answer to fit with what he knew of the source material, which admittedly wasn't much; it wasn't a series that went out of it's way to give large amounts of setting history.

However, while skimming a history of the last several decades (boy, it felt weird to think that Konoha was only 55 years old) he came across a story about the end of the Second Ninja War, when the daimyo from the Land of Stone came to meet the daimyo of the Land of Fire to discuss the terms of peace. It was a journey that, according to the account, took a mere 7 days. Cross-referencing that with a map left him confused: How small was this continent that such a seemingly long journey could be completed so quickly?

It turns out, very. The distance between the capitals of Stone and Fire were only around 500 kilometers. While Kiseki still thought primarily using the old imperial system from his home world, he had enough rules of thumb for converting between them that he had managed to acclimate himself over the years he had been away. 500 kilometers: 300 some miles, or a mere 6 hours of driving, give or take.

It was an answer that threw his thoughts into a frenzy. It was a known fact, even here, that the world was round. He'd immediately went and grabbed an atlas, and learned that the map of the elemental nations was, truly, all there was aside from various islands scattered about the sea. The planet was estimated at 3300 kilometers. He recalled hearing that Earth rotated at roughly 1000 miles per hour, which would make his new planetary home around 13 times smaller. He was, admittedly, working with very rough numbers and math, but the answer seemed bizarre.

In truth, Kiseki thought it was impossible. He didn't know exactly how small a planet could be and sustain life, but this seemed too low. Maybe chakra had something to do with keeping things stable?

His thoughts were disrupted by the bulky, white-haired sannin arriving in the clearing. "Hello Jiraiya-san," Kiseki greeted.

"Hey gaki, you made it here early. You must be eager to hear our master plan for saving the world!"

His eyes widened at that proclamation. "You've got a plan to take care of things then?"

Jiraiya smirked. "Sure do! Track down the bad guys, take care of them, and then find some lovely ladies and celebrate!"

Kiseki laughed in a matter that he would adamantly deny was a giggle. "I suppose that would work, though you may need to improvise some of the details."

The older man lowered himself to the ground and leaned against a nearby tree. "Well, while the overall plan took most of the last few days, we did manage to work out a few details at the last minute, if you're interested."

"By all means, explain away," Kiseki proclaimed with an accompanying flourish of the hand.

"Well for starters, how would you like to be the official apprentice of the greatest of the sannin?" Jiraiya could tell he had the attention of his one-man audience.

"I highly doubt Tsunade is interested in taking on a new apprentice, so I might have to settle for you." Kiseki quipped. "That said, is that really such a good idea? Wouldn't that put a lot of unnecessary focus on me?"

"Oh, good one kid, you may actually make this fun! As for the focus bit, that's actually an upside. It can be used to explain away a lot of troublesome questions. 'Why was some random brat in a meeting with the Hokage?' 'Why does that kid seem so awesome and mature?' 'Who is that next to the handsome and gallant Jiraiya?' Besides, you asked for training, and unless you're completely braindead, you're probably going to learn a lot faster than the average five year-old, so any other trainer would start asking a lot of questions."

"Those are some good points..." Kiseki admitted. And they were; it was a solution to many problems. And yet, the idea sat uncomfortably in his head. He closed his eyes with a thoughtful hum and tried to figure out why.

Strategically, it seemed perfect. It gave him cover, training, and publicly allied him with a powerful figure. He wasn't too worried about it putting a target on him, as he would still remain an unknown, albeit a well-connected one. Logistically, he guessed he would probably end up traveling around a bunch, and the association of being "raised" by a renowned pervert may cause some issues down the road, but those were extremely minor issues and they hadn't seemed to affect Naruto.

And then it clicked. He opened his mouth to speak, and then stopped. He needed to word his properly.

"There is one problem I can think of, and it's a big one." Kiseki glanced at Jiraiya to see he had his attention, then focused his gaze on the treeline, "I don't want to tread where I shouldn't, but aren't you Naruto's godfather? I'm sure there's a good reason you haven't been raising him directly, but couldn't it cause problems later on if he learned that you were training someone else instead of him?" It was a question that could be considered a low blow; he didn't want to see the impact It might have.

"I don't know how it works where you came from, but here godparents are meant to help raise the godchild, not to raise them alone. While his father may not have minded, his mother would hate the idea of me raising her kid. Besides, when Orochimaru's treachery was discovered a few years later, I was in no position to do so. Besides, I'm terrible with kids; thankfully, you're not a real one." The clearing fell silent save for the ambient buzz of cicadas and birdsong.

After a moment, the boy broke the silence. "Perhaps you're right; it's not my place to judge. If you are willing, then I would be honored to learn from a master like you."

The toad sage preened at the compliment. "Glad you recognize how lucky you are kid! Sensei and I will take care of all the official stuff, so soon you'll be my problem instead of the matrons'." The man paused, before continuing more seriously. "I'm going to be gone briefly. I need to check on the Ame kids, keep them on the right track if I can. If all goes well, I'll be back within a week."

Kiseki winced lightly. "Be careful. Nagato - that is, Heiwa - was supposed to be absurdly strong. I've told you what little I know about the Rinnegan, but who knows what I'm missing."

"Don't worry, I've got an escape plan ready. I've got to come back and keep you from blowing yourself up after all. Now tell me, how does your knowledge of chakra compare to your knowledge of future events?"

"Hm. Not very well I guess. I know it's a mix of physical and spiritual energy, that it flows through the body, and that the tenketsu can be blocked, but that's about it. I can do the leaf exercise for the five elements with it and use it to walk on trees and water, but I don't know much else about how it actually _works_."

The sannin blinked. Then he blinked a few more times for good measure. "What."

The boy, seeing his disbelief, stood up, and walked up the tree he had been seated against. Grabbing a handful of leaves from a low-hanging branch, he walked back down and demonstrated.

"Fire." The first leaf lit up in a small flame, and he dropped it when it started to approach his fingers. "Water." The second leaf bloated slightly and began to drip lightly with cool water. "Earth." The third leaf he grabbed crumbled into dirt as though it had composted on the spot. "Wind." This leaf suddenly split vertically down the middle, with a second horizontal cut leaving the leaf in 4 pieces. "Lightning." The leaf dried and wrinkled, like a sheet of paper that had been crumpled into a ball and then tried to flatten out. The older man was visibly stunned. "Should I not be able to do that?"

The sannin finally managed to snap himself out of his disbelief at the question. "No! Well, not at your age anyway. I can count on one hand the number of people alive who have mastered all five elements. Completing the first stage of an element as an academy student would be impressive. To have all five down before even starting?"

Now it was Kiseki's turn to be shocked. "Is it really that hard? I mean, it took a few weeks to get each one down, but that was with having to wait on chakra to recover and practicing in secret."

"It generally takes around six months of consistent practice for a chunin to reach that stage for their nature affinity. Though, I suppose that unlike a chunin, you're not having to work around missions and other responsibilities."

"Six months?" To Kiseki, a 6 month learning process sounded rather like a semester long class. Assuming most chunin were somewhere in the 14-20 range when they learned, that would probably put it at the high school range. And Kiseki knew from experience that a university would teach the same material two to four times faster. Add on his greater life experience and theoretical knowledge, and it sounded about right. "Yeah, I can see that."

"One thing I don't get though kid. What exactly do you mean by waiting on your chakra to refill?"

Kiseki furrowed his brow. "Isn't it obvious? Physically, I'm a kid, and not a particularly fit one. I don't have a lot of chakra, so I had to take a lot of breaks."

The sannin hummed in thought. "You figured out how to use chakra on your own right? Let's try something. Make this sign, and then try channeling chakra." He placed his hands together, raised up the index and middle fingers on both hands, and placed the left hand on top of the right.

East enough. A moment of study later and Kiseki imitated his hand gesture… "Bwuh! That feels weird!"

Jiraiya nodded as though in profound thought. "As I thought. That's the ram seal, and one of it's properties is to help force your chakra to an even mix of yin and yang." Seeing that his new student was about to ask a question, he continued. "Chakra is made up of a mixture of spiritual energy, or yin, and physical energy, or yang. For the vast majority of applications, it's best to use an even mixture of the two, as this dramatically increases the effective strength of your chakra. Normally, students are taught that from the beginning and learn to mess with the balance later."

Shaking off the different feel of channeling chakra, Kiseki hummed in thought. "I knew about the two energies, but didn't know the balance between them. Yin and yang, huh? I suppose those are fitting names. Very zen. Anyway, I figured I had a bunch of extra spiritual energy - yin, right? - tried to practice somewhat with using it alone, but I couldn't get anything to happen."

"Unsurprising. Yin release and yang release are tricky subjects, and not ones that are commonly used. Genjutsu and medical ninjutsu are associated with yin and yang release, respectively, but neither is particularly common. And even when done properly, you need both yin and yang to actually do anything."

"Why is that?"

"Well, yin comes from the mind and spirit, while yang comes from the body's cells. On its own, yin is just thought; less than a shadow. It has no ability to affect anything. Yang, on the other hand, is physical, but this goes against it. Without the yin to add control, it just sits in the cells and can't move."

Kiseki was greatly enjoying having an actual source of information again. "So I was mixing my yin and yang inefficiently, and my attempts to use yin alone after using up my chakra were a waste. Good to know."

The white-haired author nodded. "Proper yin-yang balance will greatly improve how far your chakra goes, though we should check a couple other things just in case. Try this seal, and again channel chakra. No need to worry about the yin-yang stuff for this."

This seal was even easier. Both palms clasped, with fingers laced together as though in prayer. This time, when Kiseki put his hands together and pulled on his chakra, he found the sensation across his entire body rather than coming from his gut. He stated his observation to the sannin.

"That's the snake seal, and it aids in pulling large amounts of chakra evenly from across the body. You were only pulling chakra from your abdominal region? That would severely limit how much you could use. The heart alone produces close to 30% of a person's chakra. I suppose I can maybe see why you would think that way. A common way of representing chakra is to show it in the center of the body. That's just for diagram purposes though."

Jiraiya raises a hand to his jawline in thought. "I wouldn't normally think to ask this, but given the other issues I probably should. Which way do you spin your chakra?"

"Spin? What do you… wait, I think I remember hearing something about this. Something about hair rotation like? I remember that being mentioned in relation to something, but I don't rotate my chakra. I just kind of make it flow outward."

The self-proclaimed super-pervert winced. "That will waste a good amount of power as well. The best way to gather chakra is to spin it like a spiral. The amount and direction vary from person to person, but the way your hair twists is a good indicator for direction. Otherwise, you're fighting the natural rotation of the chakra network.

The extradimensional immigrant thought for a moment before sinking his face into his hand with a groan and an incomprehensible mutter.

"...say again?" Jiraiya asked.

"...coils." Kiseki responded. "Chakra coils. How many times did I hear that phrase used and not think it was literal? I should have KNOWN that you have to spin the chakra. The metaphor of chakra being like water in a pipe was common, and I never thought that the term coil might apply?" He dragged his hands down his face with another groan. It seemed so obvious in hindsight; trying to make it flow straight through a coil makes it waste energy by bouncing off the walls of the path. "Shit. I've been using chakra for 5 years now, and I've been doing it wrong this whole time." He sighed in frustration. "I shouldn't have been so worried about experimenting. But noooo, I was too worried about blowing myself up. Gah!"

After taking a moment to compose himself, Kiseki continued. "So I'm basically back at square one, aren't I?"

This time, the sannin had comforting news. "Hey now, it's not _that _bad. A couple weeks or so to adjust your habits of using chakra and you should be good. You've still got your experience with the elements, and your body is still used to producing chakra. Honestly, a little bit of practice adjusting your technique is well worth the amount of extra 'oomph' you'll get!" He laughed. "Besides, now I have a good story for the future! My genius student was molding chakra wrong for _years!_"

Kiseki shot him a mock glare. "Just try it old man. I'll show you how much taking care of a kid can interfere with your sex life."

Jiraiya froze, eyes slowly moving over to the kid who had just threatened him where it would hurt the most. "That… that…"

"That's genius," he cried. "I hadn't even considered how raising a kid would look to the ladies! A kind, handsome man raising a poor orphan with nowhere else to go. Teaching him the ways of the world! The ladies will be all over me!"

Kiseki blinked. "Uhh…"

The middle-aged man actually seemed like he was gonna cry tears of joy. He wasn't sure how to feel about that…

Finally, Jiraiya seemed to snap out of his daydreams and address him. "Okay kid, I'm fired up now! Here's a couple of scrolls, read them and practice those adjustments to your chakra. I'm going to Ame so I can get back and milk this sensei thing for everything it's worth!" With that, the grown man tossed him a small satchel and sprinted from the clearing.

Kiseki sat stock still in shock, surprised by the sudden change of pace, before looking between the satchel and where the sannin had ran from the clearing.

"Damn. I still had questions..."

* * *

**A/N: Well. Writers block and procrastination certainly make writing difficult, don't they? On the bright side, I finished watching the series. Naruto and Shippuden, including movies and filler for extra details where it doesn't contradict. Lots of notes and theories generated, now I just need to keep writing.**

**I am writing this story as I go, and plans are subject to change. Case in point, the idea of Jiraiya training Kiseki was not planned until I realized that it actually does solve a ton of issues. Not just those listed in this chapter; it also makes it easy for them to keep an eye on Kiseki until they truly trust him. Someone will probably read about that apprenticeship and feel it's improbable/unrealistic, but I could actually see it being brainstormed at least. Moving forward, in addition to lots of guesses as to why the world works the way it does and boring old math, my plan is to include more of the supernatural than most stories. The first story to SCP-ify the Naruto-verse?**

**Now, on the subject of details. The world size is not something that is addressed often, and the numbers I have given are way smaller than most estimates online. They were obtained by using the stated three-day travel time from Suna-Konoha, converted to an estimated difference using the estimated speed of the messenger hawk used in the Gaara rescue arc (No "super chakra speed" there), and then mapped onto the image of the planet in The Last. In all, the entire world has a smaller area than the country of India. As for the bit of training Jiraiya gave Kiseki, all those details have canonical support from across the series.**

**Finally, I find myself blown away by how many people are following this story. Almost 100 combined favorites/follows? I was honestly expecting closer to 10, at best. As always, comment away to let me know your thoughts.**


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